Carbondale native to speak at Baseball Hall of Fame

Paul Browne of Carbondale, a local baseball historian, is scheduled to speak at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

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News Eagle - Hawley, PA

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Posted Apr. 16, 2013 at 2:38 PM
Updated Apr 16, 2013 at 2:43 PM

Posted Apr 16, 2013 at 2:38 PM
Updated Apr 16, 2013 at 2:43 PM

COOPERSTOWN

Paul Browne of Carbondale, a local baseball historian, is scheduled to speak at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

His presentation is part of the Society for American Baseball Research's (SABR) annual Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Baseball Conference.

This members' only event will take place on April 19 and 20. Mr. Browne's presentation will take place on the afternoon of April 19.

The presentation is entitled Allentown's All-Star Team: Mike Kelly's 1894 Killers and discusses the Allentown team in the 1894 Pennsylvania State League.

This team was run by player/manager Mike "King" Kelly, a leading star of the era. Kelly surrounded himself with other stars of the era, including Pete "the Gladiator" Browning. What would prove to be Kelly's last season was filled with opportunity, controversy and tragedy.

The existence of such a team in a minor league was highly unlikely and unique in baseball history. This team brought excitement, pennant dreams and, finally, betrayal to Allentown's baseball community in this season, which could only have happened in the 1890's.

The presentation derives from a chapter of Mr. Browne's book, The Coal Barons Played Cuban Giants: A History of Early Professional Baseball in Pennsylvania, 1886 – 1896.

This book is about a handful of the most interesting minor leagues in the history of baseball.

Besides Kelly's all-stars and other major leaguers at both ends of their careers, these leagues included not only black players but also wholly black teams.

The book will be released by McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers in April 2013 and is now available for pre-order from the publisher at www.mcfarlandbooks.com or www.amazon.com.

Orders can also be placed at the Carbondale Public Library, a portion of the proceeds from these sales to benefit the Library.

Paul Browne has been a member of SABR since the mid-1990s. His article You Can't Tell the Players appeared in the Fall 2011 edition of Black Ball: A Negro League Journal.Black Ball is a nationally circulating peer reviewed journal.

He has also contributed articles to SABR's Nineteenth Century and Minor Leagues committees, as well as the Carbondale News.

His biographies of Carbondale natives Padney Gillespie and Edward Kennedy, among other major league figures, can be found at http://sabr.org/bioproject.